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[Activision/Blizzard] BNet Payments: UPDATED OP
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Just saw this over at Destructoid...
SOURCE: http://www.destructoid.com/in-the-future-battle-net-will-cost-money-107378.phtml
So, yeah, first they split Starcraft 2 into 3 games. Now they're making us pay even MORE for an online service(s)? I'm pretty sure this is all the result of Activision board meetings.
Joystiq went out and asked Rob Pardo to clarify the whole Battle.Net monetize bit... so, you WON'T be paying for the core ability to play online... here's the quote from the man himself:
Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/
Crisis averted... 8-)
Diablo III’s director Jay Wilson recently told an audience at BlizzCon that Blizzard and Activision are looking to make some money with the Battle.Net service. How Blizzard will be seeking to “monetize” is unknown, but Wilson said it was necessary to keep the financially crippled Blizzard alive and kicking.From the panel discussion:
We are looking to monetize Battle.Net so that we get to keep making these games and updating features. We kind of have to.
Wilson didn’t elaborate, but I think we all know how much Blizzard has been suffering the past few years. After the colossal failure that was once a promising game, World of Warcraft, Blizzard has had to revaluate its existence and make some tough spending decisions. It’s a shame that World of Warcraft never took off, but we have the massive success (over 15 million subscribers) of Star Wars: Galaxies to thank for that.
SOURCE: http://www.destructoid.com/in-the-future-battle-net-will-cost-money-107378.phtml
So, yeah, first they split Starcraft 2 into 3 games. Now they're making us pay even MORE for an online service(s)? I'm pretty sure this is all the result of Activision board meetings.
UPDATE
Joystiq went out and asked Rob Pardo to clarify the whole Battle.Net monetize bit... so, you WON'T be paying for the core ability to play online... here's the quote from the man himself:
So Julian Wilson told us that you guys are looking monetize Battle.Net in some way. Is that right?
Wow, that's an evil way of putting it. Julian's turning into a business guy on me. Here's the way I would put it. We're definitely not looking at turning Diablo into a subscription based game. It's clearly not an MMO, so it's not appropriate to do a business model like that. The way we approach all of our games now, is we come up with what we think is a great game, and then we wrap the appropriate business model around it. If that's just a box price, then that's that.
With Battle.Net we're definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money. We're not talking about Hellgate or anything like that. We're not going to tack things on. I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren't core to the game experience, they're really just optional things that some people want. It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you'll have to pay extra.
Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/
Crisis averted... 8-)
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..SC2 I will because I only play single player.
If they do plan to charge for basic use of Battle.net, then they better improve it. A lot. The friends list funtionality in the current Battle.net games sucks.
Yeah, I thought so, too. BNet covers more than just a single game so I figured that would justify a dedicated thread for it.
C'mon... You know they can't use that money for anything else BUT hookers and blow. It says so in the EULA.
Yes, they said they had 0 interest in charging a subscription for B.net.
Please explain where they could get enough money to support battle.net's servers?
It's a bad joke in poor taste by the shitty article writer.
Well, they are still getting tons of money from WoW, aren't they?
Where have they been getting the money since forever?
Just to clarify, this part of the article is a joke, right?
I mean do they offer a remedial internet sarcasm class
im' done
I don't have the article. But Blizzard released their expenses on WoW to date rather recently. Including servers, staff, development, customer service, everything they've spent around $300,000,000 on WoW. Also known as what they make in three months on subscriptions alone.
Obviously they "Financially crippled" shit is a joke.
But if they start charging for BNet. ::angry fist shake::
::Angry left fist shake, while right hand is clicking away in Diablo 3::
You know when a high profile game comes out, and when it sells a million copies in the first month, everyone jumps up and down declaring it's a "blockbuster" and it's a "killer app", while the company, developer, and publisher behind that game all pat each other on the back for making such a profitable game?
Blizzard makes 3 times as much as that $50 game every single month, except it's almost all profit.
A hundred and fifty million dollars a month.
Every month.
Blizzard makes more money than it costs to make a AAA Final Fantasy-type title game in a week.
They're fine.
Seriously you guys, they're talking about having DLC and the like. I still sincerely doubt that they'll ditch BNet as it is. I'm sure that they're just going to add extra stuff to it that requires a payment to access.
Monetize can mean anything, maybe they mean they'll have adverts for WoW Gold selling sites on BNet.
I'm okay with this. We all know the buy-box-in-store thing can't last forever on PCs... Unless you're Blizzard. But it's nice to see the big movers and shakers of PC gaming doing some of the driving for a change - helps the littler guy get their point across better.
Anyone with any sense can easily see that Blizz is using their subscription money to fund their next expansion or game. I refused to be a part of that scam any longer.
Honestly, if Blizz starts charging for BNet, it'll be the end of the line for me. I refuse to pay to play D3 or SCII online.
4 BGs and many other problems. *Points in WAR's direction* Take a gander son.
I'd like to know this too
I honestly don't think its fair to bitch about how much money wow makes therefore everything else from Blizzard (that's not even related to wow) should be free.
Every product by a company should be self sufficient. Profits from other products help fund R&D not to keep it afloat.
Would we see the same amount of rage if Wow didn't exist? Also B.net needs a massive overhaul, they could working on a "steam killer" of some sorts with it. (Game) development isn't cheap these days
Edit:
A BG = Battleground. Aka a "map" for team pvp
Nah, I'm done with EQ clones. I'm waiting on Darkfall and hoping it isn't a disaster.
Regardless, I don't mind paying for a service when it's worth it. However, by and large Bnet is just a peer to peer matchmaking services and that simply isn't something I want to pay for. I already pay for peer to peer matchmaking through XBox Live! and I'm still somewhat disgruntled over the lack of dedicated servers there.
If they make it worthwhile, then maybe... but if it's just Bnet in it's current form, forget it.
Yeah, I recall hearing that as well.
I bet that we'll be seeing more ads and such. Hell, the Battle.net tournaments for Warcraft 3 are sometimes sponsored by various companies, so it's not too much of a stretch.
If Starcraft 2's version of Battle.net builds upon Warcraft 3's version, I won't mind extra ads or anything like that at all.
Stadock is hardly big and they don't seem to need to "monetize" features to make a profit.
I swear if you guys announce that DoW2 is going to have some microtransaction bullshit, I will give up on PC gaming altogether, because it's the last PC game I want that's not been tainted by this kind of thing yet.
EDIT: Except for Demigod I guess. Stardock is fast becoming my favourite PC developer/publisher.
Especially with Games for Windows Live now absolutely free.